Series 3 > Scottish correspondence of Mary of Lorraine

MARY OF LORRAINE
421
reservation in the otherwise obsequious expression of his
grateful service. ‘ The sawill onely to God,’ he had
declared, ‘ the rest hot partt to yowr grace.’ [No.
CCLXIX.] By underestimating the force of religion no
less than the inborn love of independence, the Regent
had, within four years, hopelessly alienated the com¬
mercial classes and mature statesmen of Protestant
tendencies, like Balnaves. They were driven into rebel¬
lion when she ceased ‘ to govern and reule that realme
and pepill committit to your charge, to the glore of God
and your heighnes salvatioun, and to the rest and quietnes
of the trew and fathfull subjectis of the same.’ [No.
CCLXX.]
Arran exalted ‘ the glore of God ’ above ‘ the libertie
of this realme ’ ; but for practical purposes they went
hand in hand, both alike ‘ deir to all trew liges.’ [No.
CCLXXXIL] The lords were the leaders of the Con¬
gregation, but in themselves they would have been power¬
less against the entrenched authority of the Regent rein¬
forced by the might of France, while Queen Elizabeth
would scarcely have given open support to a hopeless
cause. Their ultimate strength was, therefore, the power
‘ to raise the myndis of the common pepill agan your
grace and your servitouris.’ [No. CCLXXXI.]
When her days were numbered it was too late to re¬
cover the confidence which she had shattered by the
policy of years, and she had not the means to bribe time¬
serving nobles. The appeal to chivalry, without the
‘ fortyficacioun ’ of material rewards, was spent in vain
on Huntly and his like. [No. CCLXXXVL] Her last
hope was stayed on France, and before Bothwell could
‘ return agane vith the arme,’ Mary of Lorraine was dead.
[No. CCLXXXVIL] A few weeks later, on 6th July
1560, the Lords of the Congregation and their English
allies compassed the Treaty of Edinburgh, which termi-